Over the Fence: Learning about Education for Sustainability with New Tools and Conversation

The metaphor of talking ‘over the fence’ underscores the neutrality of tools.
Shovels and hoes do the job, but the gardener creates the transformation of
earth to food. Each garden requires a unique approach. Such are the tools of
education for sustainable development (ESD). Pre-packaged textbooks and
toolkits provide definitions and activities, but sometimes leave educators
feeling unsure of the subject. Framed in Lave and Wenger’s communities
of practice and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theories, this self-study seeks to
explain how participation in a community of practice has greater transfor-mational capacity for ESD than pre-formulated, off-the-shelf curriculum and
instructional materials. When we collaborated to create generative tools
for ESD, we engaged in a process of socially constructing knowledge and
becoming members of a community. By engaging others in this process,
we cultivated the kind of transformation that had been missing from many
of our experiences with other ESD materials and conferences.